The Most Important Interview Questions To Ask Instructional Designers
If you have been tasked with hiring for an open Instructional Designer position at your company or finding a freelance Instructional Designer, you should compile a list of strong interview questions. These questions can help you get a feel for the experience of the candidate, what they can bring to the table, and how they can handle the task at hand.
Here, you can find a list of the top 12 interview questions to ask Instructional Designers. This is just a start, so be sure to add your own questions to this list. Ready to hire your next Instructional Designer? Post your job here!
1. How Will You Ensure That You Can Work Effectively With Subject Matter Experts?
Working with a wide range of Subject Matter Experts is a vital part of being an Instructional Designer. The two of you need to be on the same page at all times in order to deliver the best content possible. These relationships cannot suffer in communication or behavior. The answer from an ID to this question will tell you a lot about how they handle themselves.
2. How Do You Acquire Information From A Challenging Expert?
Find out if the candidate has ever had to work with a challenging Subject Matter Expert. If so, ask them how they have ascertained information from that expert. What if the expert was no longer available for the project—how did they move forward with another?
3. How Do You Measure Your Course Design Success?
Once you have completed a course and distributed it, how do you measure its success? Do you monitor how it performs? These are 2 important questions to ask an ID. Their answer will show you how much they care about their finished product once it is out of their hands.
4. Have You Worked As Anything Other Than An ID?
It’s always best to find out the experience of the candidate. Try to find out if they have worked as anything else other than an ID. Their prior experience in software design, coding, writing, research, and the education field could be very helpful to your organization.
5. Do You Get Involved In The Creation Of The Storyboard?
It’s interesting to find out how much involvement the ID has in the creation of the storyboard for the courses they create. Depending on the requirements of your open job this might be a major factor in the hiring decision.
6. How Proficient Are You With The Following Tools: Captivate, Blackboard, Flash, And Breeze?
You need to find out the proficiency level of each candidate in all of the eLearning tools mentioned in the question. Find out if the candidate has worked with any LMS tools or software that is specific to the job for which you are hiring.
7. What Is Your Design Process?
As important as all the other questions listed in this article are, you need to ask this simple question. Not every ID candidate will have the same design process. And, from experience, you might know which design process works best for your company.
8. Does Your Design Address Different Learning Abilities?
Everyone who reads a course will have a different way of learning. They might also have different learning abilities. You need to ascertain how the designer handles different learning abilities in their design. Ask the candidate what they know about Bloom's Learning Taxonomy and the 3 domains of learning; cognitive, affective, and psychomotor.
9. What Does Your Typical Day Look Like?
Have the candidate explain to you what their typical day looks like. This can be either when they work in the office of a company or remotely as a freelancer, any type of position you need to fill. Their answer can help you understand how the candidate operates during the day in regards to working in a team, either in-person or remotely, how they handle answering to a superior, and how the candidate handles critiques of their work.
10. How Do You Acquire Info About The Students?
Ask the designers whom you are interviewing how they acquire information about the students who will be in the class. The way they obtain this information can make a big difference as to how they design the course.
11. What Are Your Favorite Theories Regarding Instructional Design?
The answer the candidate gives to this question can help you determine how educated the candidate is on the subject and how much they keep informed about the industry.
12. Do You Ever Create More Than One Prototype?
Have you ever been tasked with creating more than one prototype? If so, what was the reason for this, and how do you differentiate between titles? These are important questions that you should absolutely ask candidates for your Instructional Design position. The answer to this question can help you determine if the candidate will be flexible in the position, especially if your company has required more than one prototype in the past.
Are you preparing to post a job ad for Instructional Designer at your company? If so, be sure to ask all the candidates whom you interview the 12 questions outlined here. They will go a long way towards determining which candidate is offered the job.
